Fat Girl Revenge

I had wanted to do a quick Twitter post about this, but then realized that I could not express my thoughts in only 140 characters…

I just heard about Oxygen’s new reality series, ‘Fat Girl Revenge’ and I can not help but feel enraged over this. Perpetuating the stereotype that women can’t be happy or empowered until they lose weight is wrong and dangerous. According to the article,

“Fat Girl Revenge” follows two women who lost a lot of weight and now are seeking out everyone who tormented them in the heavier part of their lives. “Look at me now, b—h!” seems to be the general tone of the encounters.

 

This angers me because it will highlight the fact that this woman, who despite accomplishing her goal from hard work, is still bitter holding on to past hurts, and can only feel better by confronting people from her past. This angers me because there needs to be more media representation of strong, confident, happy FAT women. I get that there will be an audience for this show, and I can even understand that some women may feel better by getting “revenge” on the people who have hurt them in the past. I just think there needs to be a balance. If the Revengeful Fat Girl is given a platform, then the Proud Happy Confident Fat Girl should be given just as much of a dynamic platform.

This is why I wanted the title of our upcoming book to be FAT GIRL. I want to change the meaning and connotation of those words. My continued hope for my work is to challenge and modify the way people view overweight women.

Needless to say, I will not be watching this show. I will however, continue my mission, spreading the message I am committed to. Who knows, perhaps someday soon I will be given the same opportunity with a show too!